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VENEZUELA'S POLITICAL CRISIS

Maduro: World will side with Venezuela should US ‘empire’ invade

The nation’s leader stressed that Venezuela had found itself in the epicenter of a political standoff

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro EPA-EFE/MIGUEL GUTIERREZ

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

© EPA-EFE/MIGUEL GUTIERREZ

CARACAS, February 20. /TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said that he was confident that countries across the world would support the Bolivarian Republic in the event of a US military invasion.

"If Venezuela is attacked by the US empire, the peoples of the world will rise up and begin fighting it together," he said addressing medical university graduates on Tuesday. Maduro’s speech was broadcast live over his Twitter account.

VENEZUELA'S POLITICAL CRISIS

The nation’s leader stressed that Venezuela had found itself in the epicenter of a political standoff between the US, which is taking "aggressive, unilateral and imperial actions" and those who advocate "a multilateral democratic approach based on accord, harmony and dialogue between peoples throughout the world."

On February 18, during his speech at Florida International University in Miami, US President Donald Trump said that Washington was considering all options to resolve the domestic political crisis in Venezuela.

Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and parliament speaker, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital of Caracas on January 23. Several countries, including the United States, Lima Group members (excluding Mexico), as well as the Organization of American States, recognized him as president. Venezuela's incumbent President Nicolas Maduro blasted these actions as an attempted coup and said he was cutting diplomatic ties with the United States.

In contrast, Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Turkey voiced support for Maduro.

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Political crisis in Venezuela

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